Simulation of microalgal growth in a continuous photobioreactor with sedimentation and partial biomass recycling

Microalgae are considered as promising feedstocks for the third generation of biofuels. They are autotrophic organisms with high growth rate and can stock an enormous quantity of lipids (about 20 \u2013 40% of their dried cellular weight). This work was aimed at studying the cultivation of Scenedesmus obliquus in a two-stage system composed of a photobioreactor and a settler to concentrate and partially recycle the biomass as a way to enhance the microalgae cellular productivity. It was attempted to specify by simulation and experimental data a relationship between the recycling rate, kinetic parameters of microalgal growth and photobioreactor operating conditions. Scenedesmus obliquus cells were cultivated in a lab-scale flat-plate reactor, homogenized by aeration, and running in continuous flow with a residence time of 1.66 day. Experimental data for the microalgal growth were used in a semi-empirical simulation model. The best results were obtained for Fw = 0.2FI , when R = 1 and kd = 0 and 0.05 day-1, with the biomass production in the reactor varying between 8 g L -1 and 14 g L-1, respectively. The mathematical model fitted to the microalgal growth experimental data was appropriate for predicting the efficiency of the reactor in producing Scenedesmus obliquus cells, establishing a relation between cellular productivity and the minimum recycling rate that must be used in the system

Joint Image Reconstruction and Motion Estimation for Spatiotemporal Imaging

International audienceWe propose a variational model for joint image reconstruction and motion estimation applicable to spatiotemporal imaging. This model consists of two parts, one that conducts image reconstruction in a static setting and another that estimates the motion by solving a sequence of coupled indirect image registration problems, each formulated within the large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping framework. The proposed model is compared against alternative approaches (optical flow based model and diffeomorphic motion models). Next, we derive efficient algorithms for a time-discretized setting and show that the optimal solution of the time-discretized formulation is consistent with that of the time-continuous one. The complexity of the algorithm is characterized and we conclude by giving some numerical examples in 2D space + time tomography with very sparse and/or highly noisy dat

Image reconstruction through metamorphosis

International audienceThis article adapts the framework of metamorphosis to the resolution of inverse problems with shape prior. The metamorphosis framework allows to transform an image via a balance between geometrical deformations and changes in intensities (that can for instance correspond to the appearance of a new structure). The idea developed here is to reconstruct an image from noisy and indirect observations by registering, via metamorphosis, a template to the observed data. Unlike a registration with only geometrical changes, this framework gives good results when intensities of the template are poorly chosen. We show that this method is a well-defined regularization method (proving existence, stability and convergence) and present several numerical examples

Incorporation of a deformation prior in image reconstruction

International audienceThis article presents a method to incorporate a deformation prior in image reconstruction via the formalism of deformation modules. The framework of deformation modules allows to build diffeomorphic deformations that satisfy a given structure. The idea is to register a template image against the indirectly observed data via a modular deformation, incorporating this way the deformation prior in the reconstruction method. We show that this is a well-defined regularization method (proving existence, stability and convergence) and present numerical examples of reconstruction from 2-D tomographic simulations and partially-observed images

Joint Image Reconstruction and Motion Estimation for Spatiotemporal Imaging

International audienceWe propose a variational model for joint image reconstruction and motion estimation applicable to spatiotemporal imaging. This model consists of two parts, one that conducts image reconstruction in a static setting and another that estimates the motion by solving a sequence of coupled indirect image registration problems, each formulated within the large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping framework. The proposed model is compared against alternative approaches (optical flow based model and diffeomorphic motion models). Next, we derive efficient algorithms for a time-discretized setting and show that the optimal solution of the time-discretized formulation is consistent with that of the time-continuous one. The complexity of the algorithm is characterized and we conclude by giving some numerical examples in 2D space + time tomography with very sparse and/or highly noisy dat

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements